2. 1. Deborah Champion
Born: 1753
Died: 1845
New London, Connecticut 3. In 1775, she married Judge Samuel Gilbert of Gilead, Connecticut. 4. & 5. She had her own midnight ride, and unlike Paul Revere, she wasn't caught. In 1775, at the age of twenty-two, Deborah Champion was asked by her father to deliver a message to General Washington in Boston. Riding with the family slave as an escort, she headed north up the Quinebaug Valley to Canterbury, then east to Pomfret and Boston. Disguised as an old woman, she evaded the British and found friends who brought her to George Washington. She wrote that the General was glad "to compliment me most highly both as to what he was pleased to call the courage I had displayed and my patriotism."
Anything Messenger Paul Revere can do, Deborah Champion Gilbert, 23, can do better. She has disclosed that she served last year as a secret courier for her father, Colonel Henry Champion, 53. Caught short without an aide, Champion asked Deborah to ride the 100-plus miles from their New London home through enemy lines to General George Washington's Cambridge headquarters. She was carrying the Army's payroll and dispatches. Unlike Revere, who was caught after his ride between Charlestown and Lexington with the news of crucial British troop movements, Deborah got through to Washington himself. She had some anxious moments, however. Stopped at the Connecticut-Massachusetts border, the wind-blown and mud-spattered girl was reportedly dismissed by a redcoat who said, "Well, you're only an old woman anyway." Now married to Connecticut Judge Samuel Gilbert, 42, Deborah is expecting her first child.
Deborah Champion shared the title of the "Female Paul Revere." These women carried messages past enemy lines and through their midnight ride, warned the Colonists that the British were coming.
1. Deborah Ch
Born: 1753
Died: 1845
New London, Connecticut
3. In 1775, she married Judge Samuel Gilbert of Gilead, Connecticut.
4. & 5. She had her own midnight ride, and unlike Paul Revere, she wasn't caught. In 1775, at the age of twenty-two, Deborah Champion was asked by her father to deliver a message to General Washington in Boston. Riding with the family slave as an escort, she headed north up the Quinebaug Valley to Canterbury, then east to Pomfret and Boston. Disguised as an old woman, she evaded the British and found friends who brought her to George Washington. She wrote that the General was glad "to compliment me most highly both as to what he was pleased to call the courage I had displayed and my patriotism."
Anything Messenger Paul Revere can do, Deborah Champion Gilbert, 23, can do better. She has disclosed that she served last year as a secret courier for her father, Colonel Henry Champion, 53. Caught short without an aide, Champion asked Deborah to ride the 100-plus miles from their New London home through enemy lines to General George Washington's Cambridge headquarters. She was carrying the Army's payroll and dispatches. Unlike Revere, who was caught after his ride between Charlestown and Lexington with the news of crucial British troop movements, Deborah got through to Washington himself. She had some anxious moments, however. Stopped at the Connecticut-Massachusetts border, the wind-blown and mud-spattered girl was reportedly dismissed by a redcoat who said, "Well, you're only an old woman anyway." Now married to Connecticut Judge Samuel Gilbert, 42, Deborah is expecting her first child.
Deborah Champion shared the title of the "Female Paul Revere." These women carried messages past enemy lines and through their midnight ride, warned the Colonists that the British were coming.
7. Deborah Champion's writing.http://eaww.uconn.edu/writings/deborah_champion_letter.html
8.Her father was Colonel Henry Champion, and on September 3, 1775, she married Samuel Gilbert of Hebron.
9. She is buried at Westchester Cemetary in New London, Connecticut.
6. Commentary by experts:
http://www.ctheritage.org/encyclopedia/topicalsurveys/women.htm__
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,712265,00.html
http://eaww.uconn.edu/author_pages/champion_deborah.html
http://www.thelizlibrary.org/undelete/woa/woa03-01.html